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Unreliable results

One should always be wary of statistics; what they may mean or how they are presented or ‘interpreted’.

Your recent on-line survey on the EU (SA 24th Aug) is hardly a scientific sample of your readers – let alone the people of Swindon. You state that there are approximately 65,000 readers of the Advertiser; you state that just over 1,500 people took part in the survey – that is approximately 2.5% of the readership.

The population of Swindon is approximately 200,000; so your readership represents only approximately 32% (or 1 in 3) of the population. Thus, 1,500 people represent only 0.75% of the population!

Then there is the possibility of the ‘self-selection’ of those who chose to take part; who are more likely to be those with strongly-held opinions – in both directions!

So, how much reliability can we place on the results? All they really show is that there are some people (only a few) who have changed their minds since the referendum; and there is still a moderately even split between those who would vote ‘remain’ or ‘leave’ if they were to be given the chance of another vote.

Malcolm Morrison, Prospect Hill, Swindon

Praise where it’s due

After a recent stay in Great Western Hospital I feel I must give them some praise as they don’t seem to get much. I went into A&E fairly early after attention from a very pleasant and helpful ambulance crew. I was luckily not long in the corridor and taken to a cubicle where they were so busy the cubicle was divided into two with a screen.

Later I was again lucky in being found a bed and all staff were most kind. But A&E was always on their mind, and we were moved elsewhere to make room for people in A&E. Quite a good system I thought. Now this morning an occupational therapist has just telephoned to see how I am getting on. What more can I ask?

Mrs Marley, Pauls Croft, Cricklade

Costly clothes horse

Elle magazine reports that Meghan Markle has already spent three quarters of a MILLION pounds on clothes since her wedding. The very same woman who stood up for race and gender equality now becomes a symbol of grotesque unfairness, unearned superiority and upper-class hubris.

This is what it means to be a subject in an incurably unequal nation.

Jeff Adams, Bloomsbury, Swindon

Left or right?

People often describe the BBC as “full of lefties.” Yet after a long listen, I am sure eight of their female broadcasters are Tory sympathisers. and I could not name either male broadcasters who were obvious Tories. So is it a gender split at the Beeb?

Max Nottingham, St Faiths Street, Lincoln